Monday, January 28, 2013

Mexican government reduces violence by not reporting it

Unreported until last Saturday is the unwritten agreement between the newly elected Mexican federal government and the states that part of President Enrique Pena Nieto's new security strategy will be to reduce the number of reports on violent incidents, according to Mexican press accounts.

According to a news account posted Saturday on the website of Diario de Colima news daily, agreements have been made between the federal government and some state attorneys general that violent incidents will only be reported when "necessary".

Colima governor Mario Anguiano Moreno

Colima governor Mario Anguiano Moreno told the press that studies conducted by the federal government showed that reporting on violence in Mexico's drug war had a "prejudicial effect" on the impact of such events.

According to the translation, Governor Anguiano
Moreno said: "I was shown studies showing that at the federal level, to
the extent that we as a government are putting the issue of security, we
report every time you stop a criminal, rather than contributing to the
achievement tranquility, were on the contrary encouraging unrest."

Governor Anguiano Moreno goes on: "There was an agreement (between the Federation and the states) which will only be reporting of detainees when strictly necessary," he added.

It is unclear how the agreements are affected by federal transparency laws.

To abide by the new federal guidelines Colima Governor Anguiano Moreno will suspend weekly meetings of the Gabinete de Seguridad del Estado, and will report on detentions "only when necessary".

The governor added that while security is important and reports of detentions and deaths will still will be reported, the information may not be as readily available.

Five days ago in a Washington Post opinion piece, director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, José Miguel Vivanco, amidst the hysterical language of the human right industry revealed that part of President Pena's security strategy included changing the subject to the economy and away from security matters.

President Pena's government functions under transparency rules passed in the previous 12 years under Partido Accion National (PAN) government, and new rules imposed since the start of his administration.

When the proposed reorganization of the cabinet level Secretaria de Seguridad Publica, moving the agency to under the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), or interior ministry as a sub agency was put into effect, national legislators put SEGOB on a short leash requiring monthly reports on its activities.

Its first report, however, was a summary detailing detentions and drugs and contraband seized during the previous month,including summaries by the Mexican Army and Navy. Its second report is likely to like the first and so on.

And while the federal government is under those transparency rules, it does rely on states for its data, and so President Pena's security strategy may be aiming at getting around those rules by ordering state attorneys general to slow walk or obscure information on crimes, or in the case of states which do not have as constrictive transparency laws, not releasing any information at all.

What the new focus on information could do is to create a situation where states that do have transparency laws will be reporting crime and appear to have a crime problem, while those that do not will appear to have less crime.

It is worth noting that this writer has noticed that reported detentions and shootings have declined since the start of President Pena's administration.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

How the hell would this help a country,its important to report of all violent incidents whether we like it or not....I'm getting this feeling President Pena's administration wants to see this narco-war come to a close by allowing them to kill each other off till there's one dominant cartel left.

What can you expect with a person that used several unethical ways to get to the Mexican Presidency? He's political party has been CAUGHT in money laundering to use in his campaign, Governors using tax money for his campaign from the states governed by his political party, using the police against its opposition, putting documented corrupt politicians with in key position and constantly denying things until caught red handed. The worst part is that the USA seems to embrace this behavior(just as with the ex-president) in order to have his by the nuts. The USA makes good money from all the mayhem in Mexico. The bad news is that 1,000s if not 1,000,000s of Mexican people are going to run away from the violence and guess where they are going?

whats going to happen is that they know already that the situation is gonna get out of control fast especially with mexico city violence is gona explode, they want to hide it because the president is a worthless piece of shit, they want to cover up what is about to happen, the goverment is choosing sides in the cartel war and they are gonna be slaughtering people at will and nobody will be allowed to say a word or be killed like the old pri has always done business through intimidation and death

i think this may be a good strategy. Putting everything out there gives these freaks their moment of glory, showing the gore inspires copy cats and in general the reporting homogenizes the violence to the point we just accept it as normal. I think the little wannabe bosses are even likely inspired by perp walks...

This method used by U.S. and it works... For the government, not the people. By ignoring the arms sales, Fast & Furious, Tradewinds, and ignore Benghazi, and the media looks the other way. Selective reporting, selective enforcement. No me digas.

the media is a major check on govt's. the ability to muzzle journalism is a step toward communism. this is going to seriously reduce the amount of narco news we recieve. ive seen this coming. as his new strategies are implemented, we will get less and les detail about events. it already seems narconews has slowed to crawlafter the hectic end to 2012 it seems everything stopped the biggest event is m4's death and theres no confirmation, details or anything. i think this is bad news for us narconews followers.

Looks like the government of Mexico works for the cartels rather than the people. How convinient not to report cartel activity in order not to draw attention to them, that way they can continue wreaking havoc on the communities and moving drugs comfortably. Pena Nieto is a joke, I guess just ignore it or pretend its not there and it will go away. Don't be surprised if you here him saying violence has gone down since he became president. What a joke the Mexican Government is...

Apparently Mexico's crook of a President has been making back door agreements with the US crooked President. Mexico has just implemented NDAA. Detention, until who knows when. No transparencies. This just allows Mejico and the US to keep it down and dirty.Its not safe for the cituzens of Mejico to live there, now tourist can visit the most volatile regions of Mejico. The cartel are corrupt, but whats worse is both,these admins are more corrupt!

You seem to mix up fascism with communism in the case of the USA.Fascism is if the big business/capital/upper class controls the government.

I think the point is, is that in a republic, the main check on government power is the ability of the media to point out faults and wrongs, and they can't do that if government doesn't transparently report its activities.

Mexico appears to have an organized crime problem, and now it has an information problem fostered by the government.

I think eventually this strategy will boomerang on the federal government, and they will be forced to drop this unhelpful policy.

because if you remember, bagdad brown eye was giving press reports that there was absolutely no presence of allied forces moving into bagdad and to the contrary the iraqi republican gaurd was beating back the "crusaders" he gave these press conferences up until the very end until their ministry of information building had been rocked by us bombs, it was funny, you should go youtube it!!!...